The best place to get the opening times for UK businesses

It can often be very hard to know here the best place to find the opening times for UK based businesses is. Sometimes it can be very hard to find the information, especially when just relying on a search engine. However, there are a number of useful tips which should be followed whenever trying to get information on opening hours when using the Internet.

The store location button on the ASDA Walmart homepage

The website of the business

Probably the first place to look for opening times for a particular business would be their company website. Most company websites can easily be found using a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo. Once on the website of the company there should be a link somewhere on the homepage for either information on opening times or if the business has many locations a link where it is possible to find details about individual properties. However this can often be hard to find. It will generally be called something such as 'Where are we', 'Find us' or if part of a national chain 'Store locator' such as shown by the screenshot of the ASDA Walmart homepage shown on the right. For multi-premises businesses there is often the need to search for the individual location of interest, and this is generally done by either typing in a location eg 'Birmingham' or a postcode 'B66 3EN'. Once this has been done it should be possible to get information on the individual unit. Many businesses will have information on how to get to a site, as well as opening times for each branch, however some may not. In such cases it may be necessary to contact the store using the details provided.

Screenshot of the opening-times.co.uk homepage on 17th June 2009.

Opening Times Website

A second place to look is the website www.opening-times.co.uk. This is a website which has the opening times for a large number of hughstreet chains from within the UK, including Argos, Tesco, ASDA, Sainsburys, Lidl, B&Q and Waitrose. This is a relatively new website, that has seen considerable growth in its short lifetime, so that it is now one of the top 4000 websites viewed from in the UK. Whilst the layout is relatively basic - it does the job well without the flashy extras - this is something which has worked well for Google.

There are several ways of getting opening times for a shop (since at the present stage only shop are included) using this website. It is possible to search for a particular store, for example Tesco or Sainsburys, within 20 miles of a location. This location can be relatively vague like Manchester or Aberdeen, or it can be much more exact and a postcode. Once this has been done it gives a list of all of the available stores within a given region, ranked in order of how close they are to the given location. In addition, there is a map with the locations of these stores, as well as the location of the searched for location. A maximum of eight shops are listed - if more than eight are in the location searched for then the closest eight are chosen.

A second way of searching is by entering the details for the location and then just selecting for all stores to be searched. This can be useful if there is no prior knowledge of the area and the searcher doesn't care what shop they go to. However, this can result in more problems. Once again only the eight stores nearest the location are given as results. With the opening times of many different companies mentioned on the system, it can be very hard to find relevant information. For example, typing in Bristol and searching all the companies available gives the results in no branches of Morrisons being listed, when in fact there are at least three such locations within the Bristol region.

A final way of searching is by looking at list of all the stores trading under a particular brandname, for example it is possible to find the locations of all of the Booths within the UK.

Whichever option is chosen, the opening times for the particular store are found by clicking on the link through to this store. In addition to the opening times, it can also contain a map, address and other contact details (phone, email etc). Many people who have never previously used the stages outlined above may recognise the individual store opening times page as it can be found when searching on Google.

In addition to such searches, there are several other ways. There are many websites which relate to specific trades, such as websites on law and banking, and these can sometimes be useful for finding out information on the opening times of specific local business premises. Even if the opening times for this business are not located on the website there may be other contact details such as phone numbers or email addresses which can be used instead.

Word of warning about relying on websites for opening times

Many companies often don't update their websites with the latest information relating to opening times, especially around special occasions such as Christmas and Easter. As such, it is worth ringing the business to confirm that the timings are correct if the visit is made near the beginning or the end of the opening times mentioned on the webpage, or around holidays, to ensure that a wasted journey is not made.

Comments

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AUTHOR

BristolBoy

8 years agofrom Bristol

Tom, that looks like a website which may be useful but the shops seem to be predominantly around the south-west of England at the moment - not much use if you are after the opeing time of a shop in Scotland!

This was the idea of writign the hub 2patricias! I may do such a hub for museums (and other attractions) in the future, although I am not aware of any such website which covers everything!

2patricias

9 years agofrom Sussex by the Sea

A very useful Hub - thank you. I have often arrived before a shop is opened, and then had to kill time and spend extra money drinking coffee.

I suggest you could produce a linked hub on opening times and days for museums.

AUTHOR

BristolBoy

9 years agofrom Bristol

Hi mayhmong. I am not aware of any such website, however as I have never even been to America I would be unlikely to have encountered it. However, this page mentioned is very much website created by one UK individual. Thanks for commenting.

mayhmong

9 years agofrom North Carolina

Is there a good one for the U.S?

AUTHOR

BristolBoy

9 years agofrom Bristol

Thanks for taking the time to comment Vurabo and Julie-Ann. Hopefully it will be useful for people. I agere that the traffic around the Mall is very bad a lot of the time Julie-Ann!

Julie-Ann Amos

9 years agofrom Gloucestershire, UK

Very useful thanks! My parents live just down the hill from Cribbs and the Mall makes traffic unbearable! Wish it opened less!

viryabo

9 years ago

Very good, well detailed and very informative hub. Well done

AUTHOR

BristolBoy

9 years agofrom Bristol

Yes hopefully people will read it, and make use of teh information contained within. They may even share the information which would be very good.

Frieda Babbley

9 years agofrom Saint Louis, MO

Well, I for one cannot stand wasted journeys. Hopefully someone will be smart enough to make good use of your info.

AUTHOR

BristolBoy

9 years agofrom Bristol

Thanks Frieda. I just decided that it would be very useful since I use these websites, but my friends/colleagues obviously don't because they always make wasted journeys to the shops!

Frieda Babbley

9 years agofrom Saint Louis, MO

What a fantastic idea for a hup. I don't live in the uk, but I'll pass this on since I know a few people there. Thanks.

AUTHOR

BristolBoy

9 years agofrom Bristol

Your welcome Hawkesdream. I discovered the Opening Times site a while back and it truly is very useful for many major chains, especially in areas where you don't have much local knowledge.

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